


The Children of Daranas

by wordbyrdaber



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-17 13:11:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5870920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordbyrdaber/pseuds/wordbyrdaber
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey has been training with Luke for only a short time when she is drawn into a mysterious diplomatic mission by her friend Finn and General Organa. The task is daunting - and made more so by the disturbing dreams she's been experiencing lately.<br/>Will Rey and her friends be able to successfully complete their journey without First Order forces destroying them first?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Children of Daranas

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Star Wars fic, and I am terribly new to the extended universe.  
> I am so happy for any help or comments you can offer me!  
> Thank you for reading, friends! 
> 
> The rating of this fic is likely to go up, and up. Because....reasons. 
> 
> Of course, I own nothing except one or two O.C.'s  
> I'm just playing around in this fabulous place for a little while...

Chapter 1: Only Peace

“Rey! You up there?”

The voice wending upward from the bottom of the cliffs made its way into the young woman’s consciousness, and she slowly opened her eyes. She’d been taking a couple of hours to meditate after the day’s lessons with Master Skywalker, but this was the best interruption she could imagine. It had been nearly five months since the battle at Starkiller. Thirty-three and a half galactic calendar weeks since Kylo Ren had injured her friend and fought with Rey. Over one-hundred days had passed since she’d left Finn in the medical wing of the Resistance’s base before setting off with Chewy to find the man who symbolized her fondest hopes for the future. She wiped the shadows from her mind momentarily, centering herself and deadening all reminiscent dread. Rey was suddenly aware that her face had plastered itself with a manic grin that was not quite befitting a Jedi-in-training. In this moment, as Finn struggled upwards toward her perch, she couldn’t care less.

“How..how are you here?” she stuttered, laying her eyes on her friend who scaled the craggy edges separating him from where she now stood in near shock. It was a dream – a beautiful dream to see Finn well and whole, though she knew that word would have reached her if he hadn’t been on the mend.  
Rey helped the ex-stormtrooper over the last jutting mound of the cliff before pulling him into a massive hug, and the both of them laughed in loud, relieved peals that rang out over the purpling dusk air. 

“I’m so happy! You’re here! You’re…you’re..”

“I survived, yeah – turns out that piece of First Order filth didn’t finish me off after all!”

Reluctantly loosening Finn from her grasp, she smiled again as joyful tears slipped beyond her lids and down her face. Covering her mouth with her hand, she lifted both brows half in disbelief. 

“Finn, I…there’s such a lot to say. I owe you so much.”

“And I you, Rey. Thank the Force that this day has come.”

The clasped each other’s forearms again, and Rey’s chest surged with joy. However, the feeling only lasted for a few pulses, and she sensed a creeping apprehension in Finn’s mind. She sucked in a deep breath, and smoothed her hands over her dusty tunic with nervous fingers. 

“I’m so happy to see you, but you haven’t come just to let me know you’re better, have you?”

Finn’s eyes widened for a moment before he released a sigh. 

“Picking up that Jedi training pretty fast, aren’t you?”

Rey smirked, resisting the urge to remind Finn that on Jakku it had been vital to be perceptive. Without being able to anticipate certain probabilities, one’s prolonged survival was not likely. It had taken countless years to hone her skills to the point where she was doing more than scraping by. Of course, Master Luke insisted that she’d always been strong in the Force. She just hadn’t known how much she was tapping into it.  
Rey changed the subject, wishing that the niceties could be prolonged. 

“Still in Poe’s jacket, I see?”

“Yeah! It suits me, after all.” Her friend jauntily stood a little taller, his face returning to a more relaxed expression. He ran his hand over the side of the well-worn leather. 

“He’s right. Did Poe come with you?” 

Rey turned the opposite direction of the cliffs, sauntering down the scrub-brush that lined her favorite meditation spot. Finn followed, his boots echoing hers in the dirt. 

“No, General Organa can’t spare him right now. She’s got him providing cover during supply runs.”

Rey let out a thoughtful noise in the back of her throat. It didn’t surprise her that First Order forces hadn’t let up. After Starkiller, their resources were scattered but they’d be capable of making a counterstrike as soon as they’d regrouped. The dogmatic tenacity evident in Snoke’s personnel was certainly enviable - almost admirable. Almost. 

“Who flew you here? Did Chewey come back in the Falcon?”

“No, actually – Testor transported me. She’s alright,” Finn added with a gentle shrug. 

Rey nodded, and a mental image of Jessika Pava flited through her mind. The young pilot was all pale skin, dark hair, and loud charm. In her own boisterous way, she’d been particularly kind to Rey after the return to D’Quar. After witnessing the very worst that Snoke’s Order had to offer, she’d found that having Jessika’s deep-throated laughter ringing in the air around her was…helpful, somehow. 

They’d talked many times about the part they might play in future conflicts regarding the Resistance and the First Order. The piolet had set attentively beside Rey in the mess hall one afternoon, hanging on her every word and begging for blow-by-blows of her confrontation with Kylo Ren. Her expression had been hungry in a way that made Rey slightly uncomfortable, but she was well-intentioned. The scavenger knew she could count on Pava as, if nothing else, a friendly acquaintance. 

They’d walked to a sturdy dwelling built from rocks, earth, and sand formed into a kind of mortar. It sat at the bottom of another rising foothill, and would be mistaken for a natural part of the craggy costal landscape to anyone who didn’t know what to look for. Despite the camouflage, the inside walls were reinforced with sheets of stone, and that the floor was covered by woven pallets. Her mentor had made his shelter as cozy as two decades in exile could allow. Now that she was here, she was able to help maintain the structure from the meteorological moods of the costal tides he made his home beside. 

Many nights, Master Skywalker would sleep outside under the vast, sparkling sky of Ahch-To while Rey remained in the hut. At first, it had seemed that her mentor was simply being kind. However, Rey now knew better. He was guarding her should the First Order come to finish what a traitor had started years ago. More than once, she caught her master looking into her face – almost wistfully, and always with a sadness she felt in her bones. 

“Ah, you found her!” 

As if on cue, Master Skywalker emerged from the inside of the hut. 

“Leia sent word that you’d be coming in to visit Rey.”

By way of a friendly greeting, Skywalker stretched his hand out to Finn who approached and took it enthusiastically, a look of wonder spreading over his face. 

“It’s an honor, sir!” 

Rey smirked at the scene the two men were playing out in front of her, considering to herself how exactly General Organa had managed to contact her brother. She knew full well that there was no communicator that Luke was aware of. If there was, Master Luke would have said something by now. Yes, the general was somewhat adept at using the force herself – this left Rey to wonder what the woman might have accomplished if she’d trained as a Jedi instead of relegating herself to a life of politics and warfare. Rey half-suspected that Leia and her twin communicated frequently – probably subconsciously, and perhaps now with renewed purpose and intention. For example, her new mentor had spoken to Rey about Han’s death before she’d ever had the chance to relay the sad news. How much of that had been indicated to him by Leia’s distress, Rey could not know – but at the very least, the heart-crushing blow the General had suffered would have been a confirmation of what ripples Luke must’ve felt. 

“You are certainly welcome here, young friend,” Luke said, pulling Rey out of her private thoughts. 

“Come inside, and visit with us – I have made dinner, and I can tell you have news.”

Finn sighed, half relief and half resignation settling into the air around the three of them. 

“General Organa did send me – but before we dig in, I should let Pava know there’s grub.”

“Ah, the young pilot – yes.” Luke nodded in approval, and Finn left to retrieve his travel companion. 

The two force-sensitives stood in comfortable silence for a moment before Luke put his hand on Rey’s shoulder.  
“You’ve been training here for a while, and you’ve made excellent progress – but you’re not a Jedi yet. When you see my sister, remind her of that. Remind her that…certain dispatches should be more carefully considered.”

Rey’s eyes grew wide, and she set her mouth in one tight, serious line. 

“You already know more about this than I do – more about why Finn is here…why haven’t you told me anything yet?”

“You have enough on your mind, Rey. Where your focus is concerned, it is not wise to provide more distractions than there already are.”

With that, Luke turned and walked back into his dwelling. Rey bit her lip as her stomach turned. It was true – it was hard to focus on deepening her relationship with the internal energy that flowed through her, and linked itself to the rest of the universe. It was hard to dispel the numb fear that managed to creep in when she allowed herself to remember Starkiller Base. 

Rey stifled a defensive response because she knew in her heart that Luke was right. Her mentor was, if nothing else, honest.

 

 

She only managed to finish half a bowl of roots and herbs before Finn’s explanation of his visit caused Rey to lose her appetite completely. 

“I still don’t understand why General Organa thinks that this...errand is a good fit for me. I don’t have her…tact.”

Finn and Pava traded a meaningful glance, and Luke sat with the three young people on the floor of his hut, eyes closed in deep thought.

“Hey, I know it seems weird,” Pava chortled. 

“Sometimes the General makes really odd choices, but you’ll learn to trust her just like the rest of us. She usually knows what she’d doing.” 

The mission, as it was revealed to Rey, seemed a simple one from a logical perspective, if not somewhat unorthadox. A few days ago, a transmitted message had been received by communications officers on the D’Quar base. It had been interpreted in record time, and given to General Organa. 

“Have you ever heard of the Mind Walkers?”  
Poe had asked her this before launching more fully into his explanation. Rey had nodded reluctantly. They had been the stuff of stories told late at night in the rickety backwater alehouses of Jakku. She recalled how, in her younger years, she’d overheard whispers about the way in which certain creatures had developed the talent to separate their minds from their physical selves – they’d learned to travel in corners and hidden spaces that lay beyond space and time. The stories had emphasized that these creatures – these Mind Walkers – had all but lost their humanity, isolated as they were out in a black hole laden system of cosmic patchwork ominously called “The Maw.”  
But they were just stories, weren’t they?

“General Organa was contacted by a specific group who call themselves the Children of Daranas.”

That had a familiar ring to it, too – though Rey couldn’t say why. Seeing her confusion, Luke spoke up and attempted to share a simple explanation.

“Daranas is a mythological figure from the lost planet Alderaan. She was capable of seeing the future, but no one believed her.” 

Finn, Pava, and Rey nodded their heads in acknowledgement, then Finn started his explanation again. He made a motion with a wave of his hand. 

“Apparently, the message from this group was a distress call. You see, they’ve got this…person in their little group who needs asylum. They don’t have the resources to make sure that the First Order doesn’t get to ‘em first. They want the General to keep this person on base with us…but we’ve got to go get them. They don’t have much in the way of cross-system transport.” 

“Why now?” Rey countered.  
“Why do these people think that they can just call us on a whim and get our help when they haven’t been major players in this…conflict?”  
Finn sighed again, and closed his eyes briefly as if trying to form the next few words as carefully as he could. 

“The General doesn’t have any connections in that system – not for years. So she was worried about the fact that these people were able to summon up the know-how to send a message to the right coordinates – especially with our encryption systems in place. Also…they asked for you to help them Rey. You. Specifically.”  
Rey huffed in exasperation.

“That sounds like a trap.”

“That’s what we thought, too – but then they mentioned Ach-To.”  
There was no response but silence to that, and Rey’s mind spun. If the First Order knew about Luke Skywalker’s whereabouts, Kylo Ren would have shown up with fifty Stormtroopers by now. They were persistent, but also completely predictable. It was not hard to forecast the possible maneuvers that Snoke and his minions would take against the Resistance. The most destructive, straight-forward path seemed to be the preferred methodology by the Order. Anything else was simply more complex than necessary.  
Jessika Pava drug her hands through a shiny mane of black hair in a motion that bespoke nerves being kept in order. 

“I know - it’s creepy,” the piolet muttered, half to herself and half to Rey. 

“What will be the benefit of bringing this person to D’Qqar?” 

Rey was pushing for as many details as she could get – it seemed appropriate, given the circumstances.  
“The person that they need to protect is…well, vital to their culture. They’re the main magic-walking-ghost-person, or something special like that. Anyway, they don’t want their magic person found and used by Snoke.”

Rey grimaced at Finn’s description, and her eyes flitted to Master Luke whose brows were furrowed in disapproval.  
“Magic-walking-ghost-person?” Rey countered, slightly disgruntled, before continuing. 

“Snoke is already powerful – why can’t he just rely on himself? Not to mention his knights, or whatever they are…”

“I dunno,” Finn replied, making to dig back into his stew.  
“But I guess that General Organa figures it’s better for us to hide ‘em and have ‘em as an ally. Knowing the Supreme Leader,” Finn’s voice dripped sarcasm when Snoke’s official title left his mouth, “they’d probably just…get rid of anyone who they can’t use. The Children of Dan-dan-”

“Daranas,” Luke quietly corrected.

“Yeah, thanks – Daranas…they seem to be willing to send help. We’re not in a position to turn them down, you know?”  
Rey was quiet for a moment, then looked towards Luke.

“What do you think? Should I do this? Is it safe?”

“Now that Snoke and his apprentice know who and what you are, you’ll never be completely safe,” her master stated plainly.

“However, I would not have you fear them. This is a mission of peace and goodwill. Use what you’ve learned about the Force to guide your actions in this. It will not lead you in the wrong direction.”

Rey cast her eyes downward, inhaling the crisp evening air. The smell of dirt and saltwater tickled her nose, and she searched for the familiar connection towards the light that lived without and within. What way should she travel? Was this an advisable undertaking? 

She could feel Finn and Pava’s eyes watching her as her master’s energy stabilized and gently guided her – made her more certain in her attempts at devising probable outcomes. The future. The best path. 

“I will do this for the General – for the cause,” she said carefully. Finn and Pava could not hide the relief that rolled off of them, and Rey momentarily wondered if they’d been told by Leia to go on ahead even if Rey wasn’t with them.  
She placed her bowl onto the floor, and drew her knees up to her chest. She looked towards her master who had knitted his brows over the furtive ghost of a smile. His blue eyes looked especially dark in the dying blue light of dusk, but she could feel something in him that felt a lot like confident approval. 

 

The setting of the dream was always the same. 

They were always in the forests of the weaponized planet. The snow was always falling like ash and stars around their heads. Shadows shifted and circled their forms, revealing and hiding their outlines in turn. The first time, there had just been the customary sparring. Light-quick and reflex-driven, it was all electricity and struggle.  
This went on for many nights, and Rey became accustomed to moving into a battle stance as soon as she became aware of the dream state. She was used to opening her eyes, feeling the dark and the snow, and hearing the hissing of what she knew were three red bolts of light – one long, and two shorter beams equidistant from the center - held in position overhead. 

It wordlessly signaled the ignition of her own weapon, and she’d snap forward – lunging into the darkness at her opponent.  
She knew nightmares – the residue of trauma left on her mind and soul by the events she’d lived through – were to be expected. Han’s death, Finn’s injury, and the dismembering of a planet beneath her feet…it was an imprint that would leave a dent on anyone. 

Then one night, the red saber never appeared. There was just the monster in the mask regarding her stoically. It stood stock still in the clearing they shared. The only sound was the wheezing, electronic hum of breath filtered through a black metal barrier. Rey had let her heart slow before she lowered her own saber – the one she held in the dream was always the same one she’d given back to Master Luke during her first moments with him on Ach-To. It was the one she’d found in the trunk, and the one that Maz had pressed beseechingly into her hands. 

Rey could feel the pull of Force-energy, even here. The young woman reasoned that there must be a meaning to what was going on. This very private sphere of self, detached from any other living creature – it was responding to something. There was a lesson on this plane that she had to acknowledge…no matter how long it took, or how many nights she would have to experience the image of the now-destroyed New Order base.

Regarding the eerily silent sentinel, she’d huffed in frustration, dropping her backside into the snow. The look of ire on her face would have been amusing if it all weren’t so strange. Rey had squinted up at the figure of Kylo Ren in her “nightmare” and, rather predictably, both she and her would-be opponent held their positions.  
The dream finally dissolved – perhaps out of sheer boredom.

She’d spoken to Luke about her dreams after that. One morning, while going through forms, she mentioned it off-hand. He’d seemed alarmed at first, and finally had advised her – as he often did – to follow the will of the Force – and, in doing so, the energy in her vision. 

“It will show you what you need to know, Rey. But if anything alarming happens, you must tell me.”  
The next time she’d found herself in the dream, she had immediately assessed the situation. The figure of Kylo Ren loomed in the shadows. The lightsaber was still at her side. As unsettling as the situation was, Rey knew that there was no point in simply staring at the figure before her. In order to end these forays into her mind, she would have to act.  
With a deep breath, Rey focused her energy into the words she’d been reciting endlessly through route meditations since she’d begun her training. Her voice was startling, and it rang out oddly, reverberating off of the trees, shadows, and snow. 

“There is no emotion, there is peace,” Rey began softly, edging toward the figure. She concentrated on one step, then another. Her heartbeat raced and slowed in succession with every breath. Undeterred by fear, she pushed on.

“There is no ignorance, there is knowledge…there is no passion, there is serenity.”  
She moved slowly forward until she was standing directly in front of the knight – she could hear his breathing clearly now. Dream Kylo stood still as death, frozen in place. She paused wondering what her next move should be. 

“There is no chaos, there is harmony…”  
Her heart was now only a dull thud pulsing in her stomach. Rey wrapped the energy in her vision around like a cocoon. This space – her dream – she would control it. Without the hindrance of further thought, Rey lifted her hand to the mask, carefully feeling the smooth veneer countered by the dents and scratches put there from what she imagined was constant wear.

In a split second, a hand wrapped in a dark glove shot up from the monster’s side. 

It grabbed her wrist, as twisted as Rey yelped in surprise.  
It was accompanied by a low, angry voice.

“I swear by the Force that if you keep reciting that idiocy, I will slit your throat where you stand, scavenger.”  
As if reacting to a hot surface, Rey plunged backwards into the snow. She only just managed to stabilize herself before the figure before her unlocked the barrier of the mask, and removed it. 

Rey’s mind had raced – was this part of her projection? Part of the dream? The blackness around her seemed to deepen, and in what felt like a pool of tar a face appeared before her. It was much as she remembered, except for a jagged crack in the flesh diagonally jutting down one side. Kylo Ren peered out at her in something between rage and wonder.

“Do not presume to touch me – filthy desert rat!”

The last words were punctuated by shouting, and Rey scrambled backwards into the trees. Hate, anger, and noxious bile swelled in her throat, replacing her fear. She dropped to her knees, and willed the Force to help her flee the vision.  
Upon waking, her twisted wrist had burned, but there was no indication that it had come to any physical harm. She had sat in silence for around an hour, trying to decide how to process this turn of events. Certainly, she could assume that it was all still just a dream – a frightening one, but purely fictitious. But something in her uneasily acknowledged the level of detail at which things had occurred. The dents in the mask she’d touched. The ache in her wrist. The scar. 

So then she understood. There was a dream that kept calling to her and connecting with her mind – and she could visit it along with Kylo Ren. It was terrifying, but there was a reason for this. The Force always had a reason, and she resolved to suss out what it was. 

The next few encounters had been absolutely silent. Ren and Rey would stand on opposite sides of the clearing, sometimes posing in separate forms and stances. One night, the whole charade began to feel very silly to the young Padawan, and she simply took a seat in the snow again and began to concentrate on the energy around her. This must have served as some kind of signal to Ren. When he wasn’t acting like a large monolith, Ren had the countenance of a careless, startled animal. It was odd, then, when the Darksider relaxed his position.

“Did you make this happen?”  
The low mechanical voice shot through the air. 

“I don’t think so. I wouldn’t choose this. You know that.”

“Because I’m a monster?”

“You’re the one who killed his own father, and betrayed his family. You tell me.”  
A low laugh drifted over the clearing, burning Rey’s ears. 

“When you’re done shooting at me from the moral high ground, perhaps we can make some progress. Until then, do me a favor and stay quiet. You’re more tolerable that way.”

“Well, you asked the question.”  
The mask tilted slightly, and words oozed from it like oil – like poison.

“Careful, scavenger. You’re losing hold of all that serenity you claim to have.”  
She snorted, and decided she’d had enough dreaming for one night. 

 

Before Rey, Finn, and Jessika left for The Maw, there was a final dream. 

He was standing over her with his mask off. She sat in the snow, looking upwards into the bursting flakes coming down around their heads. If she hadn’t been preoccupied with the enemy in her sight, the place might’ve been peaceful. Rey wished hard in that moment that all her concerns might be stilled for a while – if only she could simply count the crystals falling from the darkness in peace. But there was Kylo Ren’s face, all sharp angles and wide dark eyes. His expression fumed with contempt, but this was nothing new.  
“Would it make you feel better if we did some sparring?” she suggested in an attempt to goad him.

“I offered to teach you. I still might.”  
Rey shook her head.

“I have a teacher, thanks.”  
Ren looked upwards and laughed at that, but returned his angry gaze to where she sat in the snow.

“I have been trying to figure out why you are now allowed to ruin my sleep as you ruined my face.”

So. So, it really wasn’t just a dream after all. Rey’s heart missed a beat as the finalization of her predicament became fully apparent. This was not just a private vision existing in her mind. This place belonged to both of them – for some awful reason. 

“When I interrogated you –"

“You mean violated me?”

“When I questioned you, and you pushed back…it must have left an imprint on both of us. I have been researching this phenomena, and it has been known to happen.”  
He paused, and she raised one of her brows.

“I can use this to my advantage, scavenger. I will.”  
She stood quickly, igniting the saber at her side as she noticed his mouth turn upwards into a hollow smile. 

“You can’t hurt me here,” she barked.

“No, but the truth is that…I have a connection to you now. And in time, I will find where you are – as well as where Luke Skywalker is.”  
Rey snorted in disbelief.

“You can’t know anything I don’t want you to know! I won’t let you!”

The knight placed his hands behind his back, and walked a wide circle around her, speaking as he went.

“That may be the case right now, but as long as we’re both alive, this connection – this place – will become stronger…because you will. This thread between you and I – as you develop in the Force, so does it.”

Ren’s face became smug, and nearly relaxed.

“I can wear you down, girl. I have years. And finding the Jedi scum’s hiding place is only the first step. Even if you do continue to train, and even when you become Jedi – I will be here. And besides, there are already things I have been able to glean,”  
The knight stopped, turning his head at a quizzical slant. His long jaw went slightly slack, and his eyes grew wider. For one awful moment the only illumination on his face came from the saber at her side, which she held to for sanity’s sake. 

“Leia Organa is sending you on a mission – and what better way to intercept my new student than when she has finally come out of hiding? After that,” – and Ren grinned at this, pleased at his revelation - 

“…I’ll be with you whether you’re sleeping or not.” 

With that, Rey charged at Kylo – only to instantly find herself on one of the pallets in Master Luke’s home. Finn was curled under a blanket on a similar scrap of floor space, snoring softly. The peace of it all relaxed Rey momentarily, but then the reality of what had just occurred slammed into her. He knew. He knew that they were going somewhere, which meant that the Order would be even more on guard than usual – and who knows what else he’d been able to get from her unwitting consciousness?  
Rey knew that it was time to enlist assistance. The vision – dream, or whatever it was - had become a bigger issue than she could handle. That was quite apparent.  
Rey did her best to quietly exit the structure, and moved to where Master Luke sat in a deep meditative trance. Before she was able to speak, the Jedi looked up at her – his face eerily illuminated by the two moons in the sky. 

“Yes, Rey,” he breathed, and the worrisome tone in his throat sank into her center. 

“He was with you. He was here.” 

 

 

It was advantageous to be leaving Ach-To for a short time. Rey did not want to accidentally reveal her whereabouts to the enemy, and chances were that there would be less of a chance to divulge such information if her mind was focused on the mission – and if her physical self was far from the planet she’d been training on. 

“I will try to devise a way to assist you in blocking the dream while you are gone, Rey.” 

Master Luke stood in front of the Resistance transport ship with his student as her two companions readied for their journey into deep space. The ship itself was composed of bits and pieces that dated back to Imperial rule. The look of the structure put Rey in mind of her savaging days when hooking together misfit machinery had meant the difference between survival or death. 

Luke brought her out of her nostalgia by placing his hand on Rey’s arm. The Jedi’s face was encouraging if not a bit sad.

“In these dreams you must try to remain as serene as you can. The Darksider my nephew has turned into cannot truly harm you in such a space. If I had to guess, I would say that any emotional reaction you give him strengthens his ability to access your thoughts.”

Rey nodded sheepishly. Of course, what she’d mistook for rapid-fire banter had been a method by which Ren could use her naivety. It didn’t surprise her, but it did make her angry. 

“The Sith and those like Ren use emotion – passion – to strengthen their link to the darkness. You must thwart that by remembering your training.”

“Only peace,” Rey affirmed. 

“That’s right. But you’re strong, too. I…am pleased with your progress, dear one.” 

Rey smiled at that – Master Luke was a warm person, but not given to over-emotional displays or terms of endearment. Certainly, “dear one” was new and then it struck her just how much faith in her Master Luke must have. 

Her mentor cleared his throat, and placed both hands behind his back, taking a sudden interest in his feet.

“Now go so that you can return. And do not forget to practice your forms. Do not forget to meditate, and…and try to exercise your levitation if you can. As often as you can. And if you come back without keeping your exercises up, I will know – and you’ll have to make up for lost time.”

Rey grinned, suppressing a giggle as Finn’s feet landed on the ground.

“Ready to go? Testor just put in the coordinates, and we’ve got one hell of a journey.” 

She nodded to her friend, and started towards the giant metal structure that would be her dwelling for the next few days – only turning around once to wave bravely towards Master Luke.

“Take care of each other,” he called after them.

With a lump in her throat, Rey boarded the ship.


End file.
